The iPhone is 99.9% touch screen driven. That fact is both good and bad. Good because Apple has done an incredible job making the user interface so friendly and easy to use. Bad for me, because I wear gloves during the winter and the touch screen no worky with gloved phalanges. That means no texting or call answering / ending while I’m outside in the winter months. Or does it? Radtech offers a solution with their Styloid iPhone Stylus.
A stylus for your iPhone or iPod Touch isn’t exactly a new idea. I reviewed the Pogo Stylus last year. It worked as advertised, but let’s see if the Styloid offers something more…
Material: Aluminum + Stainless
Dimensions: 101 x 6mm / 4.0×0.24in
Weight: 4g / 0.14oz
Colors: Satin black
Works with: Apple iPhone, Apple iPod touch, Computer Trackpads, Capacitive touch-control interfaces
This stylus is very light weight with a smooth anodized surface and a stainless steel pocket clip on one end.
On the other end is the stylus tip, which appears to be made of a firm but spongy Black material.
Unlike the Pogo Stylus which had a fuzzy tip, the flat surface of Styloid’s tip has been coated with a thin layer of flexible vinyl or plastic. The stylus does not have a cap to protect the stylus tip when it’s not being used.
I’ve been using the Styloid on and off for a couple of days now and I’ve noticed that it seems to take more effort to use it than it does a finger tip. This is because you can’t tap the stylus on the screen at the same angle that you would typically use to write with a pen on paper. For the most part, you have to tap the flat surface of the stylus tip perpendicular to the screen in order for the tap to be registered. I often had problems with skipped letters when trying to use the stylus to tap out a text message. After awhile, the stylus felt like it was more trouble than it was worth and slowed down my input rather than helped make it faster.
I can see how the Radtech Styloid stylus could be useful for people with large fingers, long nails or for people like me that wear gloves in the winter time. But I’ll most likely continue to take off my gloves if I need to use the iPhone, instead of using a stylus.
What about you? Would you find a stylus useful for your iPhone or iPod touch?
Product Information
| Price: | $14.95 |
| Manufacturer: | Radtech |
| Pros: |
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I rarely wear gloves here in NC (it just doesn’t get that cold), but when it IS cold enough (for maybe a week out of the year), I wear fairly thin cotton gloves and the iTouch still works reasonably well with them.
I would have liked to see this stylus have a retractable tip, or at the very least a cap as you stated. I wonder how long it will take for that tip to fall off while it’s in your pocket…
Is that a 3GS Julie?
I have some gloves with little metal pads on the finger tips. They work great, though they’re not the warmest gloves in the world. My girlfriend got them for me. I think they’re called Dot Gloves. Check them out.
@jake it sure is
@Gayrub Yes, I’ve seen those special gloves advertised. I need to try a pair!
Nope… not for me. I’d lose the stylist in about 4 minutes flat
Ugh Just Say No To Stylii!
If it’s cold enough for gloves you probably don’t want to be operating your iPhone outside anyway.
Why could they not sell a pair of gloves with the tip built in? You could probably do it yourself. Just find out what it is made of and have someone sew a tip into your glove. Someone could make alot of money doing that. If you do it just name it after me and I will be happy.
Whilst for most Mac users, the idea of a stylus seems like a backward step; I can think of one very good use for it. Trying to draw or write on the iPhone with your finger is very difficult. A stylus would be perfect for this.
Matt Byron Petch
@Joel A company does make gloves with built in stylus tips. I just haven’t tried one. You’re right, I should try to modify some existing gloves of my own.
@Matt You’re exactly right
Asider from having to remember to carry another widget, like you I found the stylus slower than my fingers and more prone to missing characters while texting. I never have to remember to bring my fingers and there is always a spare when one is covered with taco sauce. I really had to bear down to get the stylus to work!
I’ve been using the Pogo ever since I got my 3G. It doen’t seem to suffer from the problems described above. And since it lives in a clip on the iPhone I don’t have to worry about losing it.
I saw a special stylus on Youtube. The stylus is transparent. So head of stylus will not cover the screen, user can see the icons very clear. It’s easy to do handwriting/ painting/ clicking small icons. You can use keywords “dagi stylus” to search the vedios on Youtube. Just for your reference.
Hopefully you aren’t texting while your driving. I would also wonder if any calling or texting is really needed, there was life before cell phones and still is.
wow. Do you mean that I could wear any glove and the Radtech styloid still would work. Do you know how it works. I been searching for something like this to draw. It would be easy to draw with this since only one source of eletricity would touch the tablet. As for gloves why would you need any and thats so lame anyone could of figured that one out.